Realism and Reception Aesthetics in Literature

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Realism and Reception Aesthetics in Literature

Journal Title: Söylem Filoloji Dergisi - Year 2016, Vol 1, Issue 2

Abstract

The human existence is a complex structure. The emotional and intuitional dimensions of this structure penetrate to literature. It is higher than daily language. Thus, the literary text is fictive. It expresses the existence. The man of letters transforms a part of life or a story, in the world of art by maintaining its integrity; so she/he reconstructs and rewrites it. Like in all other art pieces, the literary pieces also have more than a single meaning. The value and importance of a literary text is not related to its loyalty to the reality, but its language and style. In fact, the literary text is the means of the creating and fictionalizing the life. What described and expressed in art and literature is the various conditions of humanity. People considering art as a tool of reflection are the persons who act from the reality of life. According to them, the direction and face of the art always look to the life. To understand art means somehow to understand human. The artist reflects the soul and features of its own era to his/her art. The parameters for this reflection change depending on the culture and time. With the Age of Enlightenment, the development of philosophy deeply has influenced the arts, as well. Since this era, the philosophical depth and perception have been prominently seen in literary theories and pieces. The formations such as life and reality, social realism are the results of this perception. The reception aesthetics is also a part of this point of view. The reception aesthetics is a contemporary literary theory. It is the reader who scrutinizes and tries to understand the text. Each reader approaches to a text with her/his own unique knowledge and expectations. The literary work is a text that is reinterpreted and reassessed by each reader. Thus, each comment is the expression of a free activity. The emergence of positivism in 19th century and its common acceptance have provided a basis for the birth of realism in the art. The realism is the essence of the art. All arts and especially literature reflect the "social and historical” realities. An art work tells its own reality. In that sense, the art work is the product of the conditions which it is in. Each era and period survive with its ideas and feelings by means of its own art. Besides, the reality is not a concept that is fully identified with all its parts. The realism is the imitation of the reality in terms of certain aspects. It is some kind of the "mimesis” of life. The matter of the reality of a text is still an ambiguous subject, because "the condition of reality” can change depending on the author, reader and era. The discourses can differ in every society. The literary theories can also change according to the consequences of socio-cultural knowledge. The artists have been influenced by the realism with the development of social and political events. In this context, the soul and the way of thinking of the period also play important roles. In fact, we observe that there is an internal and external struggle between the theories and literary movements in the West. In a sense, it is the clash of material and moral values in the context of philosophy and art.

Authors and Affiliations

Sefa Yüce

Keywords

Reality in the literature meta-language reader realism positivism reflection aesthetics

EP ID EP242026
DOI 10.29110/soylemdergi.255282
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